The Elgin Corners Dental Blog

Electric vs. Manual Toothbrushes

Our Surrey dentists often recommend electric toothbrushes to help their patients better clean their teeth. Here are a few reasons electric toothbrushes have an edge over manual ones.

Manual toothbrushes are effective for cleaning teeth when the proper brushing technique is used for the recommended two minutes a session.

If you and your dentist are satisfied with your oral hygiene routine as it is with a manual toothbrush, good job! You can keep doing what you’re doing.

However, if your oral hygiene requires some improvement, an electric toothbrush can provide some added benefits that can help.

They do the brushing for you

The primary benefit of an electric toothbrush is that it require very little effort to use.

We recommend electric toothbrushes with rotating, oscillating heads, because these make the ideal circular brushing motion.

With this kind of electric toothbrush, all you have to worry about is guiding the head lightly over the fronts, backs, and chewing surfaces of your teeth; the electric toothbrush will do the rest of the work for you!

Built in Timers

It can be hard to tell exactly when the required two minutes of brushing are up without a watch or timer. It can take longer than you think!

Most electric toothbrushes (even many basic models) come with built in timers that go off at the two minute mark, to let you know when you can stop brushing.

They make it easier to clean hard-to-reach places

If you use the recommended round, rotating head, electric toothbrushes are small enough to reach those tight spaces at the back of your mouth easily. And because you don’t have to make the brushing motion yourself, you just have to maneuver the brush gently around your back teeth for a good clean.

Brushing too hard? An electric toothbrush may actually help with that, too.

This one may seem counter-intuitive, but it's true. Since don't have to make the brushing motion yourself with an electric toothbrush, it's much easier not to brush too hard. You guide the brush lightly and evenly around your teeth, not really pressing down, rather allowing it to make the scrubbing motion.

Patient Information

At Elgin Corners Dental, our dentists and team are committed to preserving and improving the oral health of the Surrey community through conservative, up-to-date procedures and great patient-dentist communication.